A Slant of Light
by indelible
Summary: Even the darkest moments would still contain hope. When Yoh breaks up with Anna, she learns that there is more to life than being the perfect wife. RenAnna, prequel to wittierbanter's 'Runaway Bride'. Chapter 2 is up, finally.
1. Prologue

**A Slant of Light**

Urei Sachi

_There's a certain slant of light,_

_On winter afternoons,_

_That oppresses, like the weigh_

_Of cathedral tunes._

_Heavenly hurt it gives ups;_

_We can find no scar,_

_But internal difference_

_Where the meanings are._

_None may teach us anything_

'_Tis the seal, despair,--_

_An imperial affliction_

_Sent us of the air._

_When it comes, the landscape listens,_

_Shadows hold their breath:_

_When it goes, 'tis like the distance_

_On the look of death_

-There's a Certain Slant of Light, Emily Dickenson

---

I'm baaaack. )

Thanks to:

- wittierbanter, who gave me permission to continue the concept and for conjuring the whole idea. :3

- Chibi Ra-chan, who inspired me to make another one of those canon contradiction pairings.

- And to reviewers, who give me a reason to write fluff and drama. ) You know, the good stuff.

I have no idea whether this will be dark and twisted or fluffy and sentimental. I'd vouch for somewhere in between. I really don't want to get too mushy and too disheartening.

Hmm… the only things I should warn you about are pairings, I guess. . Don't ask. I don't know whether I'll actually mention something other than RenAnna, but… yeah. We'll see, shall we?

This should be one hell of a ride.

---

**A Slant of Light**

Prologue

---

She walks alone, again. Her feet softly brush against the wooden floor with deliberate slowness, although she has never been this tense, this unhurried. Her movements are alert and detached, and her teeth are clenched tightly. She betrays no emotion other than that of vigilance, but what, in the name of all things holy, was she watching out for? There was probably nothing that could possibly happen tonight; not anything important, in the very least. There would be no assailants, no stray spirits, and, most of all, no unwanted visitors. Not much of it, anyway.

No, it's alright. Everything's alright. Yoh, Tamao, and everyone else that matters are alright. Even Anna's alright, although she keeps telling herself that she isn't and that nothing in the world could fix her quandary right now. She keeps searching for answers in her mind. There aren't any.

Perhaps it was better if things were this way- she would be privileged to be free and single for the meantime. She wouldn't even have to worry about Yoh that much. Assuming the role of future wife had certain responsibilities that single women didn't need to dwell upon for so long. Yes, things would be better this way.

Or, at least, that's what she wanted to think.

The whole house is quiet tonight. Strange. Usually, one Usui Horokeu's snoring would be heard all over the house. She's tempted to run up the stairs and peek inside the room he shared with the other boys, just to make sure that she isn't asleep and dreaming. Right now, she's pretty sure she isn't. The cold feeling of her skin against the wooden wall proves that point. She presses her lips together and glances back at the hallway, as if she was memorizing every nook and cranny of the whole house. After all, this might be the last time she would reside here. This is the last day that she is Kyouyama Anna, commonly known as Ice Queen or the rather generic Asakura Yoh's fiancé. Tomorrow, she would be _ex_-fiancé.

So this is what it feels like, she thinks, to be kicked out of your own house.

This is what it feels like to be alone.

Shivering, she walks up the stairs, this time with a heavier heart and a wistful expression. Alone. It sounds so empty and so foreign to her ears, although this is not the first and last time she would have to be solitary. She had always, always been impartial and self-sufficient, although she had had no trouble at all in learning the basics of concepts like teamwork and dependency. It may have been hard, at first, to adjust to that kind of thing, but she pulled through. She had to, if she wanted to have things the way she originally designed it to be.

This plan was not intended, of course. It was just Yoh thinking, time and again, of what things would be like if she didn't have him on a leash. If Anna could have had her way, this wouldn't actually happen. But, then again, she had a part to play in this grand design: the understanding probable wife who was sympathetic and empathic at the same time. Granted, she wasn't like this back when they were younger and unable to understand what the whole scenario of matrimony was. She wishes that she had had the impudent yet forceful way of thinking of Horo Horo a while ago, when Yoh had talked to her about them. About this. About everything.

God, she wanted the earth to consume her entire body then. She couldn't even comprehend whether she was indignant or melancholic or just plain taken aback. She remained aloof and unmoving even as he started to elaborate on why they had to take some time off. She should have been suspicious, because Yoh never actually went into detail in everything he said. She should have.

Oh. Tamao's waiting at the top of the stairs with the same old expression of distress. She's twisting her hands and trying to say something- _anything_ – that wouldn't sound so feigned, so overused. Her uneasiness increases as Anna makes her way up, and when she finally walks past Tamao, their eyes meet.

"I..." Tamao begins, and Anna stares at her. "Is there anything I can do?"

Anna is torn between confusion and disdain. "No." Her reply hurts Tamao in ways that she could imagine. Her heart leaps up when she sees the pain fill Tamao's eyes, but she doesn't know why she takes great happiness in venting out her frustrations on the timid girl. She would probably regret this in the future, but god damn everything that was beautiful and brilliant if she didn't.

"A-alright." She wonders how much courage Tamao has to gather before she could shake it off and nervously run up the room without stumbling, but decides, for Tamao's sake, that she would rather not think about it for the meantime. Then, she is alone again, and the night air feels colder and bitterer than before.

The hallway is dark and depressing, but not as welcoming as it has always been. Had it heard and seen what had taken place? No, it was impossible. It was just her imagination. Grimly, she realizes that there isn't even a shaft of light coming from the windows. There are no shadows in the walls; they have been obscured by the entire atmosphere of dusk. Where is the moon? Terrified and hiding, perhaps, and shedding the tears that she had not bothered to shed.

She passes Tao Ren in that dark hallway; she almost didn't realize that he was there. If his eyes hadn't been a hauntingly golden color, if he didn't have this arrogance and air of mystery about him, she would have mistaken him for the darkness. They don't say anything.

Instead they continue to walk in separate directions, indifferent and at the same time intrigued. But he pushes the thought out of his mind before it starts to turn into something else, and she simply does not care.

Sleeping isn't an option, she knows that much. Her emotions and thoughts are too clouded to allow her a few momentary lapses of rest. But, then again, her entire body is fatigued and there is nowhere to go, nowhere to turn to right now but her own isolated four walls.

She shrugs her shoulders and walks back to her vacant bed, pausing in front of Yoh's room for a few seconds until she finally snaps out of her daze and turns her back to everything else that used to be home.

---

**END PROLOGUE**

**---**


	2. Midnight Conversations

**A Slant of Light**

Chapter One

_Close the door_

_I feel a breeze, hold me please_

_I hate to be alone_

_It's a cold night, turn off the lights_

_Come take my hand and_

_Listen to these things I have to say_

_Please understand_

_She left me all alone again._

---

"Turn off the lights, please," He said quietly as he looked out of the window. His golden eyes, enthralled by the darkness outside, glinted incongruously; he knew that there was someone at the door. It was too obvious. Yoh really had to be cautious sometimes.

Said person smiled and crossed his arms against his chest after acquiescing. "It isn't even turned on." He replied good-naturedly, a little confused by the request. After a moment's consideration, he deliberately stepped forward a few more feet, close enough to say anything private, but far enough to prevent the intrusion into the other's personal space.

That was enough for now.

Ren fixed his attention at Yoh for a moment (but only for a moment) with a dazed expression on his face, before turning back to the scenery below the second floor. The crisp air was cool and calming and, best of all, as silent as Death. It crept slowly, so slowly that if a normal person wasn't looking for it (and who would?) then that person may never have noticed it at all. But Ren was far from normal, and he was looking for it, too.

He liked his new way of thinking. It was clear and concise- something that he had not had the chance to see and feel with his _friends_. Anna was like that, he mused, but then again, did he consider her as his friend? Did _she_ consider him close enough to be that? Come to think of it, he rather felt instinctively that Yoh's friends, no matter how weird and raucous or nice and polite they may be, weren't hers, as far as she was concerned. You've got to be crazy if you wanted to befriend Kyouyama Anna.

So maybe he was crazy.

Maybe he just wanted something… oh, he didn't know, something more than a fleeting glance and an almost annoying blank expression thrown his way? A simple hello would probably even suffice. He wasn't desperate enough to fall on his feet and beg for her friendship. God forbid, he'd fall off a cliff before he did that.

"Close the door, Yoh." He sighed, "the light from the hallway is hurting my eyes."

A finely arched eyebrow was cocked at him. "Light tends to do that when you've been in the dark for so long." Then Yoh, ever the caring friend, nudged at Horo Horo and brought the blankets around the blue-haired boy. Horo Horo snored lightly, undisturbed by the intrusion.

Ren thought to tell Yoh to back off or something that was beyond rude, but his damned upbringing had to butt in and make him retaliate with a pathetic "…Whatever." He huffed quietly, like he usually did, except when he was intentionally trying to make Horo Horo feel angry or what-the-fuck-ever the kid usually felt around him. Then again, they were the same age, so wouldn't that make him a kid too?

Ren blinked. What a way to end the evening.

_God_, he thought to himself, _when did I start thinking this way?_

Thankfully, Yoh was there to temporarily stop his train of thought. "You know, I can't help but feel like something's going to happen this week."

"…" _Other than Anna beating the living shit out of you?_ Ren thought dryly, and then gave himself mental smack. He really had to deal with his issues and learn how to be more civil sometimes. Thank god that his brain and his tongue didn't cooperate at the moment; otherwise he'd be spewing sarcasm all over and get slapped for his troubles. He felt his eyebrow twitching at the thought. "I passed her by the hallway a while ago. She didn't look too pleased about your decision."

'She' didn't have to be explained. 'She' did not encompass Tamao or Pirika or even his sister Jun, but deliberately meant the itako. Yoh got the hint and smiled softly.

"I know."

"Then why did you do it?"

Yoh brought a finger up to his lips, as if telling him to be quiet, and looked pensive for a moment, It was so quick that if Ren wasn't bent on getting any kind of answer from Yoh, he would have missed it.

"When it comes down to it," he whispered softly, the inklings of momentary sadness crossing his face, "I don't think that we would ever survive together, even if we want things to work out. Sometimes, it's best to give yourself time and space."

Ren glanced at Yoh and nodded. Somehow, his heart understood, even if his mind didn't. And Yoh knew that, the same way he knew everything else about Ren.

So Ren continued to look out the window, even if his eyes grew tired and Yoh's body succumbed to sleep, as if he was looking for answers that were never there at all.

---

The next morning, Ren was surprised to find that he was in a futon surrounded by folded blankets. Oh, and don't forget the note that was taped to his forehead. (On his forehead! What the hell-?)

Grumbling about insensitive jerks like Horo Horo who didn't have the brains to just attach the note on the desk or the floor or _somewhere_ other than his face, he yanked it from his temple and winced at the feeling of sticky tape removed from where it had been taped to for (presumably) hours. Confused, he read the contents and blinked.

_Ren,_

_We left early to train and we didn't have the heart to wake you (and Anna) up. Have fun. _

_-Yoh_

Eyebrow twitching, he flicked the piece of paper to the trashcan and wondered, idly, just _how_ he had gotten stuck with friends like those.

Ah, well. He just hoped Anna didn't bite.

---

**END CHAPTER ONE**

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_Clear the room of every memory_

_I don't want our song back on_

_This is an endless maze_

_Take away this haze_

_Come take my heart and_

_Listen_

_- Listen, Stonefree_

---

I hope _somebody_ is happy now. :P Hehe. Review?


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